AED: Councillors plan to press school board after it seemed to reject teen’s defibrillator donation

Two municipal councillors are turning up the heat on the Thames Valley District school board to install defibrillators in all schools.

Zorra Coun. Marcus Ryan said he and Thames Centre Coun. Kelly Elliott will bring motions this month to their respective councils to pressure the board and the province to develop standard policies and procedures for installing the life-saving device in schools.

“It’s well past time this was done,” Ryan said. “There can be no excuse for not doing something for our children’s safety.”

Defibrillators, also known as automated external defibrillators (AED), are portable devices that use electric shocks to try to restore a person’s heart rhythm following a sudden cardiac arrest.

The Thames Centre motion comes on the heels of a decision that appeared to reject a defibrillator donated by Connor Aarts to West Nissouri elementary school in Thorndale. The principal, instead, suggested a committee be struck to look into the matter.

“In the absence of policies and procedures, they said they didn’t want to do it,” Ryan said. “Why can’t we just get an AED into the school?”

Aarts was on the field with Andrew Stoddart when, on May 11, 2015, the 15-year-old Thamesford youth collapsed while playing soccer. Stoddart received CPR from spectators with medical training before he was taken to Alexandra Hospital in Ingersoll, where he died.

Connor Aarts, 14, who lives near Thorndale, was playing soccer two years ago when a 15-year-old player collapsed and died. Aarts raised $4,000 to add defibrillators to schools and recreation facilities and offered to donate one to West Nissouri elementary school in Thorndale. A school committee is studying the issue. (MIKE HENSEN, The London Free Press)

Funds donated through Andrew’s Legacy have been responsible for adding defibrillators to four schools in Zorra Township, including Laurie Hawkins, Zorra Highland, A.J. Baker and Thamesford elementary schools.

Board superintendent Lynne Griffith-Jones said a defibrillator committee has been created at West Nissouri elementary school.

A post on Facebook said parents are invited to a meeting of the school’s home and school association March 6. The school’s defibrillator committee is expected to present a plan to raise money to buy a CSA-certified defibrillator from a board-approved supplier. The amount raised must cover ongoing maintenance, and the defibrillator must fit the board’s training requirements, the post said.

“I do believe it was a misunderstanding,” Griffith-Jones said. “If they are able to raise the money to purchase the AED, the case and maintenance, there is no reason not to go through with it.”

But Elliott said she’s confused by the rejection of the original Aarts donation and points out the Thames Valley board is the only board that doesn’t have defibrillators in all its schools.